


my own beauty, reflected

by katsukifatale (TrumpetGeek)



Series: hunting through the leaves of the night for your hands [2]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Baseball, Character's Name Spelled as Viktor, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, Retirement, Supportive Victor Nikiforov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2019-07-03 18:02:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15824097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrumpetGeek/pseuds/katsukifatale
Summary: Yuuri is 38 when he retires.





	my own beauty, reflected

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nerdlife4eva](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdlife4eva/gifts).



> ahhhHHHH happy belated birthday sam! i hope this is okay! thank you so much for requesting this, i adore this 'verse <3

 

 

Yuuri is 38 when he retires.

 

 

He could’ve gone further, the media speculates. Sometimes baseball players can last well into their forties, if they’re careful enough with their bodies, if they’re conservative with their pitches. They wonder why — why now, after a record-breaking season; why now, when he’s still pitching consistent 150k/h fastballs, still starting every game, still staring down the plate like he owns it.

 

 

But Viktor knows.

 

 

Yuuri is neither careful nor conservative. He gives every last ounce of his blood and sweat, every last cell of his body to the game, every day, to the end. He pitches and charges and swings his bat until there is absolutely nothing left of him after, until he’s left standing in front of their bathroom mirror, quietly swallowing his pain and taping another ice pack to his shoulder.

 

 

Viktor knows.

 

 

Yuuri is neither careful nor conservative. Sometimes, when they’re lying in bed draped in the safety of darkness and the pinpricks of the city lights, Yuuri tells him. He tells him, his warm breath ghosting over Viktor’s skin, his hand squeezing desperately in the blankets, how much he loves baseball — how much it’s part of him, like his own beating heart, and how much he wants to grasp onto it with all of the strength in his muscle and sinew and never let it go.

 

 

The real confession lies underneath.

 

 

(It’s painful to let go.)

 

 

He spends those nights holding Yuuri closer, his hand splayed across his lover’s back like a blanket, pressing as close as Yuuri will allow, trying as much as he can to comfort him through the same realization Viktor had gone through ten years before.

 

 

So, Yuuri is 38 when he retires. Reporters ask for interviews, journalists write articles about his achievements — three-time Olympian for Team Japan, winner of the Cy Young Award in the US and the Eiji Sawamura Award in Japan during his time with the Softbank Hawks. Viktor has to admit, he likes reading those articles. He always buys the magazines and newspapers to save them, because he’s so goddamn proud of his husband, always.

 

 

They move back to Hasetsu, where Yuuri teaches and coaches high school boys to Koushien, and Viktor choreographs Olympic figure skating hopefuls; where they make dinner together with bare feet, and kiss impatiently like teenagers, and have sex so toe-curlingly good it feels a little bit like dying every time.

 

 

A few years go by, and they’re some of the happiest of Viktor’s life. Viktor used to be terrified of growing older, of a retirement filled with empty smiles and sagging skin. What a stark difference love makes.

 

 

Maybe that’s why Viktor isn’t surprised when Yuuri tells him he received a call from the Tigers asking him to come back, because of course they want to honor him.

 

 

“They want me to throw the first pitch,” Yuuri says, voice soft and dazed. “They want to — they want to retire my jersey.”

 

 

“Of course they do, sweetheart,” Viktor says tenderly back. Yuuri, after all these years, is still Yuuri. He presses his fingertips to the sharp edges of Yuuri’s jaw, smiles when Yuuri leans into his palm.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Yuuri is 43 when he throws his first pitch and retires his jersey.

 

 

There’s a big ceremony, and the media says it was beautiful and gracious and everything it should have been for a legend like Katsuki Yuuri. Yuuri smiles and shakes the hands of his old coaches and when he speaks about how much he loves baseball and meets Viktor’s eyes, Viktor knows.

 

 

(The real confession lies underneath.)

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me on tumblr at [katsukifatale](http://katsukifatale.tumblr.com/) or at [trumpet-geek](http://trumpet-geek.tumblr.com/)!


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